“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” (Benjamin Franklin)
We’ve been working on our little jobs and chores around the house, divvying them up between ourselves, taking turns cleaning different areas of the house. I just finished making a little wheel chart, that spins every week to switch jobs around. Anything new always brings in a little extra excitement, even if it’s only about cleaning and doing jobs.

Since my kids have been practicing with them for a while now, I expected it all to go well without too much trouble. We have a set time that we usually do our jobs, so that it’s not first thing in the day, and neither the last thing at night. That gives them time to play and enjoy themselves before being reminded to do their jobs. I find that usually works a bit better, especially now during school vacations. And so, after lunch we announce our “contributions” time where we all pitch in around the house, in our specific areas or jobs.
With my boy, he’s pretty good at remembering, now that he’s learned how to do a few of the jobs quite well. I’ve told him how to do it, and I’ve shown him how it should look when it’s done. But with my little girl, I’ve so often seen the results of just telling her what to do: NOTHING! And then I’ve also seen the results of teaching her and showing how to do it: NOT MUCH MORE! But today, I got in there and we did it together. We had fun! We talked as we did it. I did one side of it and she did the other. She worked cheerfully and eagerly, and then even moved on to clean her room, without me saying a word about it.
I’m eager to see how next time goes.